What's all this about?
Toyota's new fuel cell vehicle, called the Mirai, has officially gone on sale in Japan and has already had more than three times the expected number of orders. Close to 1,500 orders have now been confirmed for the new hydrogen-fuelled saloon, significantly more than the 400 sales that were initially expected for 2015.
Where is all that demand coming from?
Japan is still one of the few markets in the world where a hydrogen infrastructure network exists, so it is a much more feasible option to own a fuel cell vehicle there. Toyota says that approximately 60 per cent of orders have come from government offices and corporate fleet sales with the remaining 40 per cent coming from regular private buyers.
How does the fuel cell work?
A fuel cell stack, which combines hydrogen gas from its on-board tank with oxygen in a chemical reaction, generates electricity that then powers the car's electric motor. The main benefit of all this is that the only emissions from the car is water vapour. Power is on a par with an electric car's but one of the main benefits is a longer driving range and the ability to refill the hydrogen tank in around the same amount of time that it takes to fill a conventional petrol or diesel car.
Dave Humphreys - 15 Jan 2015